The Night Malcolm X Spoke at the Oxford Union

How is the black man going to get "civil rights" before first he wins his human rights? If the American black man will start thinking about his human rights, and then start thinking of himself as part of one of the world's great peoples, he will see he has a case for the United Nations. -Malcolm X, Autobiography

Malcolm X returned to America on May 21 already planning a longer trip to Africa later in the summer, to persuade heads of newly independent states to call on the United Nations to intervene on behalf of African Americans. This was an old tactic. African Americans had appealed to the League of Nations after World War I and the United Nations after World War II. But the civil rights movement of the 1960s was a game changer. The famous boycotts, protests, and marches had aimed at persuading the U. S. government to intervene in southern race relations in support of American ideals. Martin Luther King's dream was born in the American dream. Malcolm X now wanted the UN to challenge what he called the American nightmare by making American racism an international issue, much as had been done with South African apartheid.